Jon Stewart's 'Daily Show' joke spawns Marin County Kumbaya Patrol

JON STEWART of "The Daily Show" poked fun at Marin's touchy-feely, peace and love reputation one night this week, making Marin a laugh line in a bit on gun control in the wake of the Newtown school shootings.

"Finally everyone from the NRA to the Marin County Kumbaya Patrol is ready to talk about gun violence, although, to be fair, the Kumbaya Patrol has been ready for quite some time now," he cracked on Tuesday night's show.

The next day, Iron Springs Brewery in Fairfax saw Marin's national exposure as a chance to have some fun with its customers, posting on its Facebook page an offer of complimentary fries to "anyone from the Marin County Kumbaya Patrol from noon to 4 today."

Of course the brewery didn't have to worry about a run on fries because there really wasn't a Marin County Kumbaya Patrol. But there would be soon enough.

After one of his friends was refused free fries, Adam Ladwig, a 32-year-old San Rafael accountant, created a Marin County Kumbaya Patrol Facebook group page that became an instant hit.

"I thought it would be funny," he said. "The next thing I knew there were like 300 people in the group."

That went so well that he created a public Marin Kumbaya Patrol Facebook page, posting on the header: "If you live in Marin County, or just wish you did, this is the place to share the love. Don't be afraid to laugh at yourself while you're at it."

He topped the page off with the widely seen photo of a bunch of West Marin women spelling "No War" with their naked bodies. That page quickly had more than 100 friends posting comments like this one from JD Gimzek: "Fantastic! When is the Hot Tubs with a View tour?"

It's become so popular that Ladwig added four other administrators to help him monitor it and keep it going.

"I created it as kind of a farce, but it seems to have touched some sort of nerve," he said. "I don't know where all these people are coming from."

A Marin transplant, Ladwig admits to experiencing some culture shock after moving here from Chicago three years ago. It took him awhile to get used to what he calls "the very emotive California way of being."

"People have no problem expressing their love for each other and things like that," he said. "You just don't hear stuff like that where I'm from."

But he's adjusted nicely. As he did the interview for this story on his cellphone, he was walking from his office to Whole Foods, carrying a reusable grocery bag.

He's also become an activist with the Marin County Bicycle Coalition, is on the board of the newly formed Marin Trail Stewards and has done free tax work for the Canal Alliance.

"I really do think this is a great community," he said. "If there was a real Kumbaya Patrol I might be in it. The biggest problem with Marin is that there are so many people doing good here that it gets a little competitive and people start getting overly self-righteous about their own causes. So it's kind of cool to have some fun with that. But even with its little pratfalls, Marin's a great place to be."